Aussie Rock Star finalists

Tommy Lee ... a 31-year-old man from Bondi is one of 18 singers in the running to score music's dream job with the rock hellraiser.

June 14, 2006 - 11:57AM

A blond surfer from Melbourne and a dreadlocked hipster from
Sydney are in the running to score music's dream job with rock
hellraiser Tommy Lee.

Toby Rand and Andre Kaman have been revealed in the US as two of
the 18 singers short-listed for the new series of reality TV show
Rock Star.

In its debut season last year, Rock Star unearthed
Canada's J.D. Fortune for Australia's INXS.

In the latest series, Supernova, a new band formed by Motley
Crue drummer Lee, Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke and
Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, will try to find an unknown
frontman.

Rand, a 28-year-old surfer from St Kilda, and Kaman, a hip
31-year-old from Bondi, auditioned with hundreds of other
Australians in Sydney in March and have spent the last week in LA
with Lee, Clarke and Newsted.

The 16 other hopefuls are from the US, Canada and Iceland.

"It is the chance of a lifetime," said Rand, who quit his
regular job at a Melbourne carpet company.

Rand, who is is the lead singer of Melbourne rock band Juke
Kartel, spoke to reporters at a $US20 million ($27 million) mansion
in the Hollywood Hills that will be home for the contestants.

Kaman, who migrated to Australia from Sri Lanka with his family
when he was three, has fronted popular Sydney cover band Funkstar
and TEN-1.

"I am so pumped about this," said Kaman, who could not hide his
excitement.

The show will be filmed in Los Angeles.

Lee, Clarke and Newsted will cut the 18 hopefuls to 15 before
the show goes to air in Australia and around the world in July and
the trio said there was a real chance a woman could be the
winner.

Of the 18, eight contestants are female.

Magni Asgeirsson, a well-known male singer in Iceland, also made
the 18.

"The winner could be male, female, from Australia, Iceland or
wherever," Newsted said.

The winner of the new series will record an album with Supernova
and tour the world in 2007.

Lee, Clarke and Newsted said the tour would include
Australia.

Rock Star will be shown in Australia on Foxtel's Fox8
channel and in primetime in the US on America's most-watched TV
network, CBS.